What's in a name, anyway...

Having done our 'special weekend' last weekend(in an effort to dodge Memorial Day crowds), we really had nothing to do this weekend.  Not wanting to sit around ALL weekend and then realize we did NOTHING, we decided to take a quick road trip to Pendleton, Oregon.  At one point, we were thinking of heading to Pomeroy, Washington to check out a cabin, but yesterday when I called the real estate company to get some good directions(something I have learned is important with rural properties), we found out there was an offer pending on that property, so, we decided to check out Oregon instead. 

With it being kind of a last minute decision, I made a quick trip on yelp to find out what kind of things there actually are to do in Pendleton.  One of the main attractions is an underground tour, where you can see all the tunnels that the old Chinese workers dug when they worked in Pendleton back in the 1890's.  Since my wife isn't big on confined spaces, we decided to check out the Umatilla County History Museum, and also the Pendleton Wool Mills and the attached Pendleton Store. 

Life being life, we got a little later start than we wanted to get.  It's a nice drive, showing off how nice looking Eastern Washington/Oregon can be.

Due to the late start, and the fact that the Pendleton Mill gave scheduled tours, and not  just 'whenever you show up tours', we decided to eat lunch first, which didn't leave time for the Umatilla County History Museum. 

Lunch was the best part of the day.  The fine folks on Yelp pointed us in the right direction: The Prodigal Sun Brew Pub. 

Because I was wishy washy, and unable to decide between the different selections on their menu, and instead got the beer sampler.





Lunch was good...so good, that I'd almost be willing to make the hour and a half drive to Pendleton just to eat lunch there....which is good, because the tour of the Pendleton Wool Mill lasted a grand total of 12 minutes, so, it was like we made the trip just to eat lunch. 

I can't say the tour was a total waste...my wife seemed to get something out of it.  I think she would really like me to buy her a 25,000 computerized loom so she could make some of the blankets they make there.  You had to wear the little 'personnal PA System' head sets to hear the tour guide with everything running in the factory.  Even then it was tough to hear all the way...the girls tried to get into it, but all the really got out of it was it takes big fancy machines to make lots of colorful blankets,  Luckily, after my 8 beer samples, I was able to enjoy the tour by focusing mainly on my amazing wife. 

Some of the blankets were nice, but man, you paid for what you got...even flipping through the selection on the 'factory seconds' tables everything bigger than a 'throw' sized blanket was priced north of $100.  I looked at a wool jacket they had on their clearance rack, and almost swallowed my tongue when I saw they still wanted $200 for it.  We didn't leave empty handed...my wife picked up a 7 pound bag of wool 'mill ends' for needle felting, and a 13 pound back of 'loom trimmings' so she could make a 'loom selvedge rag rug'.